Unfortunately, I hear daily how things are tougher than they used to be when it comes to spending on the care of pets.
I know that at times choices must be made, like curbing vacations, eating out less or maybe canceling monthly subscriptions.
Whatever choices one makes, may I suggest that monthly heartworm prevention for your dog or cat not be put on the chopping block.
Here's why:
By leaving out monthly heart worm prevention, your pet is made susceptible to the heartworm disease itself.
In a dog when this happens, that means we often must negotiate a heartworm treatment to clear the body of these pests-at seven to ten times the price of a year's worth of heart worm prevention pills.
In addition, the risk of heart worm treatment is ever-present, as these procedures are risky and require a co-contribution of time and compliance by the dog owner.
So my bottom line statement is, it costs money and it costs risk by allowing for dogs to become heart worm positive.
As for cats, things are even tougher. As most veterinarians can tell you, heart worms in cats are tough to diagnose, impossible to treat, yet easy to prevent. The prevention part has been made easier than ever by way of monthly topical products rather than pills.
It's a shame that heart worm-positive status in pets happens because of one of three scenarios I commonly hear:
1. I never knew of the risk. If any vet sees you with your puppy, the vet no doubt introduces the importance of beginning and sustaining the monthly prevention. With the mosquito population, I consider monthly prevention imperative — not an option. And no, a fenced yard doesn't help (yes, I do hear that one from time to time. ...)
2. I thought someone else was taking care of this at home. This is unfortunate, but making sure that communication between family members is straight on the issue of heart worm prevention must be a priority.
3. Money got tight, and we just couldn't purchase any more. Well, to that I must ask, did you buy food for your pet? Did you buy bedding, toys or flea control medications? I thought so. All I ask is, for the sake of a pet's long-term health, make the monthly heart worm prevention priority top of the list, not the bottom of it.
Since today's column addresses point No. 3, let me re-state the economics of what heart worm prevention costs.
The prices (depending on small dog or cat vs. large dog, and whether strict heart-worm prevention product vs. a combo product), ranges from $4 to $15 a month. These products also prevent other things, like many intestinal worms, fleas, sarcoptic mange mites and even ear mites in a few of them.
If things are monetarily tight, get one of the more affordable products with less ancillary coverage. Regardless, we can conclude that, as one colleague shared with me at a meeting last summer: "heart worms can be prevented for less than the cost of mailing a letter a day, no matter what you use."
I rest my case. Besides, what's the price on peace of mind? Less than that morning latte or flavored coffee for sure. Oops. I went too far on that one. As my mother-in-law might say, "Now you've gone to mettlin'."
OK, y'all, all I want to do today is prevent one more pet from becoming heart worm positive. If I've achieved that, you're free to make your own consumer choices otherwise.
Merry Christmas to all, and with regard to parasites in your pet, sleep tight.
Dr. Chris Duke is a veterinarian at Bienville Animal Medical Center in Ocean Springs, Miss.
(c) 2009, The Sun Herald (Biloxi, Miss.).